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Xavier Bonfils, of France's Joseph Fourier University-Grenoble, told SPACE.com: 'There are a wide range of structures and compositions that allow Gliese 163c to be a habitable planet.'

The super-earth orbits a red dwarf star 49 light years away in the Dorado constellation.

Orbits and estimated relative sizes of the two innermost planets, b and c, around Gliese 163

On their research announcement the
team said that 'Gliese 163c could have a size between 1.8 to 2.4 Earth
radii, depending if it is composed mostly of rock or water,
respectively.'

It receives on average 40 per cent more light from its parent star than Earth from the Sun, making it hotter.

In comparison, Venus receives 90 per cent more light from the Sun than Earth.

Current six potential habitable exoplanets ranked by similarity with Earth (Earth = 1.00). Four of these objects have been detected in the last year, from September 2011 to today. Gliese 163c is represented here as a rock-water world of 2.4 Earth radii, however, it could be as small as 1.8 Earth radii if composed mostly of rock, like Earth

VIDEO: ESO zooms in on the Tarantula Nebula and its surroundings including the Dorado constellation...